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SUBTLE SIGNS OF LUKEWARMNESS

You know moments
after a cooperate or personal fast when you feel pumped up and power-stuffed,
ready for anything on the Christian journey?

Yeah right!

Not until few weeks
when you drag into the unexpected- tongues taste like soured milk, worship
feels dry like pampers; personal bible study bores like calculus and so on.

People often think
that lukewarmness begins when prayer life and study life becomes a drag. If
only we knew what and when the real problem begins.

See babe, there is
a huge difference between knowing something is wrong and knowing exactly what
is wrong.

The Laodicean Churchwas aChristiancommunity established in the ancient city
ofLaodicea now called Denizili in today’s country known as TURKEY1.

Jesus had this to
say about them back then as written in Revelations 3:15-19 (NLT)

“I know all the things you do, that you are neither
hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other!

But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor
cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!

You say, ‘I am rich. I have
everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are
wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

So I advise you to buy gold from
me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white
garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness and ointment for
your eyes so you will be able to see.

I correct and discipline
everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.”

A closer look at
the above verses reveal the subtle signs of lukewarmness.

1.Illusion 3:17

2.Indifference 3:19

3.Slothfulness 3:19

1.ILLUSION:
This refers to something that deceives by producing a false or misleading
impression of reality2.

This people believed they were rich, had
everything and didn’t need anything. Meanwhile they were

wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

Isn’t that how we sometimes feel we are doing
okay because we still speak in tongue, read our bibles, pray and see answers,
don’t miss services, pay our tithe and all em routine we judiciously hang on to?

Don’t get me wrong. These things are very
important and I do them too but they aren’t
actual proofs that a Christian is hot! (We will get to the real deal soon).

The Laodicean church had all the routines in
place and who knows, their church services were probably laced with people
crying during worship and a heavily goose-bumps-inspiring ambience, classy
protocol team and all. These things are enough to make any Christian/church feel
they are doing okay.

You know how we can be so engrossed in our
already pre-planned agenda that it becomes impossible to embrace the new? Times when we stick with our old plans, old
methods of serving in the kingdom or sticking with a particular area or aspect
that we don’t care anymore when God is whispering a new agenda in our hearts.

For example, a church might be used to serving
widows every month and God lays it on the heart of the leaders that He wants
them to reach farmers in the community. Now, they bring it up on the board
meeting and analyze to the point of paralysis, raising reasons upon reasons why
they must stick with the ancient program. You hear things like, “that’s how
we’ve been doing it”, “ministering to widows is still ministry; we don’t have
to do everything”.

Assume I’m married to you (IF YOU ARE MALE. LOL)
and you say, “Sweet, I like apples”. I
note your preference and I get you apples consistently and after 15 years in
our marriage, you say, “Sweet, I like watermelons”.

Now you’ve told me your “present” preference but I continue to buy you apples just because
you use to prefer them. You tell me again and I say, “well honey, apples and watermelons
are both fruits, they do the same thing. You’ve always liked apples after all”.

Would you
be happy with me? I bet that will hurt. You will definitely feel I’m not paying
attention to your needs.

What are those areas in your life that the
Holyspirit has been saying, “honey I need you to make an adjustment here” but
you’ve explained it away saying. “It’s not a sin after all, I pay my tithe after
all, I go to church after all, I sing worship songs to you after all”!

That’s my worse kitchen ordeal right there. You
see the problem with blunt objects is ineffectiveness.
They can’t cut right and require extra effort that they don’t show for!

When something or someone is ineffective, they
are unreliable, unproductive and are a waste of effort.

So
you spend all that time speaking in tongues, reading your bible but you are
chief procrastinator on the assignments that God gives you daily?

You are “prayerful” but the moment the
Holyspirit says, “Child, pray for this person”, prayer suddenly feels like a
drag.

Some of us are only fervent in prayer when we
are asking about our personal needs. When it’s about souls or anything God is
concerned about, we pray like God needed to beg us.

Watch our churches.

Haven’t you noticed the zeal with which people
pray against “witches from the village”? Head banging almost to a fall off,
eyes shut till its almost red, voices raised to the maximum; but as soon as the
prayer point becomes “let’s pray for missionaries in the northern states”,
voices becomes whispers, eyes open like angels tapped them.

It is this kind of slack towards what really
matters to God that made him call the Laodicean church lukewarm!

The issue with lukewarm tea isn’t that it isn’t Liquid.
It’s still liquid. Like the Laodicean church, they were still “born again”.
However, the inconsistency in result/effectiveness was Gods issue with them and
with us today.

Hot water tea can warm up your chest in a cold
season; cold water tea can liven you up in a hot season. What purpose would a
lukewarm tea serve other than make you want to puke/throw up?

When God has a pressing need over nations can He
trust you?

When a soul is running out of time and needs the
love of Jesus can God send you?

If God can’t bank us to deliver on assignments,
then we are LUKEWARM no matter how high sounding our tongues might be.

Noticed what how the Lord described the
Lukewarm?

“You don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked

I consider it a
huge privilege to be God’s mouthpiece on earth. I pretty much like that I have
to learn from Him and the capable others he has planted in my life while
passing on this knowledge to others as He wills. Being His
mouthpiece means I have to travel, meet people, and go to places are like or
not like (yes sometimes you don’t feel like being somewhere). This exposes me to a whole lot of information
and helps me build valuable relationships. I’ve been a guest
minister to many in the last twelve (12) years of my life. Pretty much since I was
a teenager. I’ll like to share with you a few things I believe young people
should never do when they are out as guest ministers. 1.Don’t Isolate yourself from responsibilities There
are times when the host might place you in their home or someone else’s rather
than a hotel. Most young people tend to cross their legs and wait for breakfast
in bed like the anointing would lift if they picked up a pin. When
you’re placed in a home rather tha…

“If
this life has anything to gain at all, I’ll count it lost if I can’t hear you
feel you, cause I need you…” rang my amazing ringtone by Lecrae. I
picked up the sleek darling to see who misses me. It was this pretty friend of
mine. Ada
(Not real name) and I met at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in our first
year. We had a lot in common and she was just my type (whatever that means)
LOL. Anyway, I was (and still am) literally and figuratively in love
with God and I noticed her heart was committed to God and His standards too. Well,
we graduated four years later and you know how life happens. We haven’t really
kept in touch for a while. I heard sometime back that she was engaged and I
called to say congratulations. We talked about how life had been
since after school and how we both are still fervently loving and serving the
Lord. She said her wedding was three months away and I told her I definitely
needed the aso-ebi (A uniform material sold to people who wish to attend an
event). T…